@egreen76 question: “However, I’m trying to figure stuff out on the PDM…like can you do a correction bolus without eating?? I’m having trouble figuring out how to do that. It won’t allow me to bolus more than 30u max”
I excerpted a quote to allow more in depth discussions on the Omnipod functions.
You can bolus any time and any amount (up to the max amount you have setup in your PDM).
But if you use the PDM’s bolus calculator it will factor in your BG and IOB. So it may recommend less of a correction bolus (maybe even none!).
But you can still bolus, even if the PDM is recommending zero.
If you wanted to use the calculator, you would put in your BG, it would recommend a correction, and then you could bolus any amount you want. If you don’t want to use the calculator, you could just put in a bolus amount.
You are not required to follow the recommendations of the PDM.
Maybe I am not fully understanding the question @egreen76?
Today is my first day…I’m still learning the new technology coming from a Medtronic 630G. So you’re telling me that there’s not a cap on bolus technically and it’s set manually somehow? Because my bolus recommeded like 43u with a correction + carbs with no IOB and it told me it was more than the MAX (30u).
Also, when I was checking my BS today - I tend to check about every 2 hours (love my G6) because if I’m awake I wanna know where I stand and be in range. And I want to be able to dial everything in so I’m studying it. Ok…got off topic (sorry!!) When I was checking my BS today and it was above 150 I wanted to do a correction bolus. However when I plugged my BG into the calculator it just sat at 0 (maybe it was factoring IOB and truly was 0). But I wondered if I had to put carbs in the calculator for it to actually calculate correction along with carb coverage. What if I have no carbs and looking to do a correction?
Well there is a max. Just like with a pen or syringe, there is a max amount you can give. Also, you can set a max limit, for safety.
Not sure of the new one, but on the old PDM you can set the max on the PDM to be anything between 0.05 units and 30 units.
You cannot set the max higher than 30 units, and you can not give more than 30 units with one bolus under any circumstance.
If you are getting a recommendation for more than 30 units - and you think that is what you need - you can do it as 2 separate boluses.
So in this instance you described, you would enter your BG and it tells you 43 units. You bolus 30 (the max). Then after it has finished, you would bolus another 13 without entering in a BG or carbs or asking for a recommendation. I think if you asked for a recommendation it would give you a different number because you have IOB.
My personal recommendation - for big numbers like that, it might help to use a pen or syringe, to help preserve the site and conserve the pod insulin. But if you do that, your IOB numbers would be off. So if you rely on the IOB numbers, you should NOT do pen or syringe injections!
Before I went back on the pump (I’m my PCP’s ONLY pumper) I was on the Dexcom G6 and the InPen (again the ONLY patient that they had doing that too). Yes, I’m going to be seeing an Endo (July 7th). I just decided to take control of my insulin and thankfully I have a medical team who will listen to me and as long as it’s reasonable and I can prove why I think it’s best for me, they will pretty much do what I ask. I ran into a big problem over the weekend with my BS staying too high…then the site occluded last night while eating dinner. I didn’t have a calculator (I’m REALLY used to them by now) to go by on how many units to dose for correction and carbs. I gave myself 30u by InPen and then I stayed up and kept vigil over my dropping blood sugar. I swear to you the slope on my G6 graph looks like one I’d love to ride on a rollercoaster!!! Wow the rush!!! LOL But, it was scary for me last night. I’m glad I didn’t go to bed and I knew to stay up. I happened to have been on the phone with my best friend when I got the alert that I was 20 minutes away from being at 55. I got off the phone with her, started eating ice cream and then moved to the peanut butter. When I finally got it back up to 80 and steady I felt safe to lay down.
All of that to say, I’m not sure I’m ready to trust myself to bolus without a calculator and it absolutely must take into consideration current BS and IOB. Otherwise, I’ll just wait until I have no IOB and put my BS in and see what it recommends then. I know I don’t have to follow them to a T but while I’m trying to pinpoint settings I need to keep some semblance of “reality”. I was on 4u/hr on my Medtronic which was the MAX for basal. We now have my settings lower than what I was used to. I know I’m going to have to toy with them. That’s another post in itself. But, I have to figure out my basal rate first and I’m going to give these current settings a couple of days to see what they are doing and how well they are keeping me from having to correct them.
Okay, so a few important considerations if you want to stick with the pump’s calculator and IOB display:
There may be other tools you can use for calculations and IOB displays, that would let you enter in bolus amounts from different sources. Like if you used your pump, a pen, or a syringe, and you could enter the amount and still see IOB calculations. Perhaps a phone app would let you do that.
Thank you for your recommendations! I appreciate them. This morning I woke up to an empty pod…I had gone through the full 200 units in about 24 hours. I was set on like 2.5u/hr and was having to bolus quite a bit. I didn’t use anything extra to bolus with because I do use the calculator to keep track of IOB. I haven’t had a chance to research apps for the iPhone that would keep track of IOB and calculator for those boluses…but will be searching for one. I fought highs all day today again, so we increased to 3.3u/hr this afternoon and am still using the calculator and bolus for IOB. We are going to see how well I do through the night. I have a meeting with my trainer at 8:30 in the morning to go over numbers again. I’ll mention to her your suggestion and see if she maybe knows of any apps where her other patients have done this.
I also switched to Fiasp today and we changed the duration of insulin action to 3 hours. Again, we’ll see…
You might want to check out mySugr and Sugarmate. I am not sure that Sugarmate offers IOB calculations, but mySugr definately does.
You can connect to Apple health and have the data imported into SugarMate but generally SugarMate is an app more centered in cgm data.
Another option that would help your pump sites last longer, if you don’t want to worry about tracking blouses, is to take basal insulin. Basically you dose part of your basal (the time it’s set the lowest) via syringe and then use the pump for any basal needs above that dose. Or you could even dose for just half of your basal and do the other half via pump. Then there’s nothing extra to track and your pod will last more than 24 hours.